POLL: Should teenage killers like Kian Moulton be jailed for life? | UK | News
Police have drawn the picture and named the 15-year-old “cowardly” teenager who killed Leo Ross in a random stabbing attack after he tried to strangle an 82-year-old woman and attacked two other elderly victims.
Kian Moulton was jailed for at least 13 years after a “campaign of violence” in Birmingham last year, but the case has sparked fresh calls for underage offenders to face tougher sentences.
Rachel Fisher, mother of 12-year-old Leo, who was walking home from school when he was brutally murdered last January, described the sentence as “a complete joke” and suggested children like Kian were “not afraid” of prison time.
Mr Justice Choudhury said naming the 15-year-old would have a deterrent effect and described him as a “disturbed young man”.
Children under 18 do not receive the same kind of life sentence for murder as adults in England and Wales; Judges instead set a minimum term, and then the parole board decides whether it’s safe to release them.
So what do you think? Vote in our poll and join the discussion in the comments section. Can’t see the survey below? Click here
Kian Moulton’s “appalling and shocking” attacks at Shire Country Park in Hall Green included pushing three pensioners to the ground before fatally stabbing Leo on the afternoon of January 21, 2025.
Selecting victims who were “least able to defend themselves”, the 15-year-old told one of them: “I tried to knock you down, but now I’m going to kill you,” after pushing him into the river and hitting him with his own walking stick.
The chief judge of Birmingham Crown Court said it showed “an unusual and disturbing pattern of increased violence against strangers”.
Speaking outside court after the verdict, Ms Fisher told the Press Association: “Thirteen years is an absolute joke and it will continue to happen and will continue to happen until something is done about it.
“These kids are not afraid. They are not afraid of punishment. They are not worried.”
